Communication as a two-way process

Communication as a two-way process

Communication is a complete process - it starts with communicators sending messages to receivers, the „communicates‟. An experienced sender of the message, whether oral or written, would think of the audience as his customer. He would try to gauge or guess the kind of level of communication the receiver is comfortable with. Thereafter, he would craft his message in a manner and in the language, words, phrases, and idioms that the receiver is familiar with. Each receiver of the message is really a customer whose needs and wants should be as well known to the sender as it happens in a marketplace. Obviously, like the sender who chooses words, phrases, and idioms from his vocabulary depending on own learning, experience and exposure, the receiver also has his own mental filter that is the product of his learning, experience, and exposure. To absorb the message in his mind, he does the abstraction of the message into words, phrases, and idioms that he is familiar with or has command over. This leads to his formulating his response to the message received. Once again, it goes through the mind filter and ultimately comes out of the communicatee and starts its return journey to the sender of the message. It conveys back what is understood by the receiver.
A sensitive speaker is able to judge the reaction of his audience from the gestures, sounds, and expressions of the audience – the way they sit, the way they yawn or the way they twitter their fingers etc. It is thus a complete cycle because it is a two-way process. Until the full process has been gone through the process of communication is considered to be incomplete.